


She Never Gives Up and She Never Gives In

by cassbuttandsquirrel



Series: Suptober20 [6]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Can't believe that's a tag, Claire Novak in the Men of Letters Bunker, F/F, First Kiss, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Men of Letters Bunker (Supernatural), Schmoop, Suptober 2020 (Supernatural), if that's still a term people recognise?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-15
Updated: 2020-10-15
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:35:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27030547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cassbuttandsquirrel/pseuds/cassbuttandsquirrel
Summary: Kaia breaks a priceless artifact and Claire does her best to fix it[prompt-fill for suptober  6 "mask"]
Relationships: Kaia Nieves/Claire Novak
Series: Suptober20 [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1962145
Kudos: 6





	She Never Gives Up and She Never Gives In

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to my attempt at suptober20 prompt number 6 "daydream"  
> Big shift in tone from suptober 5 (lullaby) so get ready for some lovely fluff!! This is the first time I've ever written dreamhunter or Kaia/Claire and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out!  
> Hope you enjoy!

Kaia is not supposed to be here and she knows it. [ _ Here _ as in this particular room, not  _ here  _ as in this earth - that was a whole other exercise in metaphysics and migraines that she had long since turned her back to.] 

During their introductory tour of the bunker yesterday morning, Dean had purposely ignored this particular hallway after a shared look with Cas that was lost on absolutely no one. Subsequently, Claire had caught her eye in a significant look and, as soon as they were able to break away from the group, they had found their way back to the mysterious corridor, the excitement of discovery thrumming in their veins. 

They discovered, ostensibly, nothing - just two rooms in the middle of renovations, the wall torn down between them to create one large space. Tucked in one corner was a nearly finished bathroom, some tiles stacked in the corner waiting to line the shower walls. The rest of the space was filled with haphazardly placed furniture, with only one area set up, with a sheet-covered dresser and a footstool that had been used to hang up some meager decorations. What had really caught their attention was the sliding stack of photos on the half ledge against the far wall, but after they had snooped their fill and placed the pictures back in their correct order there was not much else to do. 

Judging by the photos and other memorabilia, this room was going to be Dean and Castiel’s, but neither girl found themselves surprised by the notion. Thus there was no thrill of secrets unearthed, but just the dull buzz of invading someone else's (unfortunately very boring) privacy. 

One good thing the rooms had given them was a place to hide out in for the duration of their stay - for Claire when she needed to sulk, for Kaia when she needed to yell, and for the both of them when everything else was getting a bit too overwhelming. As much as Claire wanted to hang with the grown ups, even she had to take a break when conversation veered into adult shit like property taxes and dating over 40. Even Jack could be a bit much, with all his smiles and earnestness, so neither Kaia or Claire felt too bad abandoning him to the company of Patience and Alex. 

So Kaia is here now, not waiting for Claire, per se, but not loitering for any other reason either. To amuse herself in the meantime, she fiddles with a hair elastic around her wrist. Yesterday, Claire had taught Jack how to shoot a rubber band across the room (aiming particularly at the back of Sam’s head) and Kaia figures the same principle should apply to a fabric elastic. It does, and Kaia shoots the elastic idly around the room, standing further and further from the wall as she tests her precision. Kaia’s beginning to really enjoy herself, making sound effects as she flings the elastic from her fingers, when after one particularly loud “pew!” the elastic drops behind a decorative wooden mask mounted on the wall above the dresser. 

Kaia wiggles her fingers between the mask’s forehead and the wall but the elastic is just out of reach. She jiggles the mask again - it must be stuck to the wall somehow. She can slip a nail under the bottom of the mask. She tries again, and this time she swears it shifts; with a little push it should be able to slide up and off whatever brackets are securing it to the wall. With just the right amount of pressure it should--

_ Crack! _

The mask moves alright, but it is the bottom half that tears away from the wall, the force of Kaia's efforts sending her reeling backwards. It's only her incredible reflexes that keep her from splinters in her forehead but her thumbs smart where the unfinished edges have left their stingers.

She drops the piece on the dresser next to the newly-freed elastic that started the whole mess to place the pricked digits into her mouth. 

"Shit," she mutters as she surveys the damage; the mask has snapped cleanly through it's eyeholes, the wide forehead and half moon indents looking more like a child's drawing of a car than like an austere ancient mask. "Shit," she says again.

A floorboard creaks, and she whirls around, wide-eyed, to see Claire half stepping into the room with a look of intent interest. 

"What's going on here?" Kaia wonders why she asks when it's embarrassingly obvious. She steps back to give Claire a better view. 

"Shit!" Claire's voice is half laughter, half concern. Kaia can't help the hysterical giggle that bubbles up out of the unease in her stomach. More laughter passes between them as Claire examines the broken piece and the bit still left on the wall. 

After a brief argument in which Claire suggests leaving the disaster to be discovered after they were safely back in Sioux Falls, they come up with a plan. Claire was to venture out to look for glue, tape or any other adhesive and Kaia was to stay behind and try different methods of wedging the mask back together.

It’s a good idea, but things are refusing to go Kaia’s way. Every effort she makes to rehang the bottom half of the mask fails and she breathes a sigh of relief when Claire stumbles back into the room. 

“Good news-” Claire pauses to catch her breath, “I found masking tape, box tape, scotch tape, and glue.” She puts each item down as she lists them, dumping the three glue containers onto the dresser-top with a flourish. “Bad news: Dean’s looking for you.”

“What?” The relief Kaia felt before is gone. “Why?”

“The hell if I know!” Claire is pouting at her. “I didn’t stick around long enough to find out. And no, he didn’t see me. I heard him talking to Sam.”

“Shit,” Kaia says for the nth time. Trespassing is all fun and games until it’s not, and the rebellious electricity that had filled her gut now turns to fizzing panic. 

“It’s fine,” says Claire, and Kaia is reminded that she’s a godawful liar, “the tape will work.”

The tape did not work. The duct tape worked for one exhilarating moment before gravity reasserted its claim. 

They try the glue next, holding the pieces together for the instructed number of minutes while Claire watches the timer on her phone countdown toward zero. Kaia is thinking this might just work when -

"Claire!" Dean's voice echoes down the tiled corridor. Claire's wide blue eyes flick from the dangling mask to the damning evidence of the various adhesives scattered across the top of the dresser. Kaia feels like a deer caught in headlights.

"Claire?" 

Claire's muttering a constant stream of curses as Kaia opens a drawer without studying its contents, and begins sliding the tape, glue bottles and leftover splinters of wood into the drawer by the handful. 

Claire helps and the brushing of their fingers as they scramble to hide the evidence does very little to calm Kaia's racing heart. They push the drawer closed and look back up at the damaged mask. Clearly, elmer glue and hope is not enough to repair a priceless artifact as the left eyehole gapes unattached from the painted cheek.

"Fuck." Claire whispers in the stunned silence. 

They're screwed, Kaia thinks, there's no way Dean won't notice, and then they'll be kicked out of the bunker, and never be allowed to come back and - 

"Wait-" there's a gleam in Claire's eyes that gives Kaia hope and she doesn't fight as Claire pulls on her shoulders to reposition them in the room. 

Dean's footsteps are getting louder. Claire casts one last glance toward the open door before she steps close. Very close. Kaia is facing the door and she can see Dean's shadow moving along the ground. Panic sits high on her chest and she's pretty sure she's sweating.

"Trust me?" Kaia barely has time to nod before Claire's hands are cupping her face and Kaia is about to go into cardiac arrest. 

"Have you seen-" Kaia has only a moment to register Dean turning into the room before Claire's lips are on hers and Kaia is pretty sure she's about to die. Dean's face is comically gobsmacked but then Kaia's brain kicks back into gear and she slams her eyes closed. 

Dimly, she can hear Dean's awkward stuttering and the click of the door as he leaves, but it's hard to focus on anything other than the slide of Claire's mouth and the way one of her thumbs is tracing an unconscious path against her cheek. 

Claire pulls away slowly, her blue eyes flicking up to hers shyly before she glances at the closed door behind them. 

"So that worked." Claire's grin is a bit less cocky than usual. Kaia is having a hard time looking away from her friend’s lips. 

_ That was nice _ . She doesn't realise she's said it out loud until Claire's mouth lets out a sound somewhere between a laugh and a shout. 

Claire moves back into her space. "Yeah. Yeah I thought so too." 

This time it's Kaia that closes the distance.

**Author's Note:**

> ps the next day they discover that Dean has properly glued the mask back together (even though its missing a few chunks) and he bugs Claire about breaking it because they were making out and she's about to tell him what really happened when she sees Kaia looking so embarrassed so she takes the blame instead and Dean never lets them live it down.  
> \--  
> Kaia and Claire have such a great dynamic and I'm so glad we have a canon lesbian couple (that's still alive!!) in the Supernatural universe. 
> 
> Kudos and comments are always appreciated
> 
> Survive the end of days with me on [ Twitter! ](https://twitter.com/librarian_gamer?s=07)


End file.
